Mirrors in Feng Shui

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Mirrors occupy a strange place in feng shui. In the traditional reading they are associated with water and reflection, and they are used to expand light and space; in popular retellings they have acquired a reputation for being either powerful or dangerous, depending on where you put them. The practical guidance is more modest than either version.

This page covers why mirrors matter, where they help, the placements most guides suggest avoiding, and how to judge size and proportion.

Why mirrors matter

Feng shui reads a mirror as a surface that doubles what it faces. Tradition associates it with Water, the element of reflection and depth, and it is used in the practice for one very ordinary purpose: to extend light and to make a small space read as larger than it is.

That is the useful part, and it does not require any belief. A mirror really does double the light in a corridor, really does make a narrow hallway read wider, and really does put a view where there was a wall. Those are optical facts, and they are the reason mirrors are so heavily used in interior design whether or not feng shui enters the conversation.

Where they help

The traditional recommendations and the practical ones coincide in the following cases.

• Small spaces that need light. A mirror placed opposite or beside a window doubles the daylight that reaches the room, which is the single most common reason to hang one.
• Narrow entrances. A hallway that reads as a tunnel often reads as wider with a mirror on one side. It also gives you somewhere to check yourself before leaving, which is the everyday argument for the same placement.
• A view where there is none. A mirror reflecting a window, a garden or a bright wall puts something other than a blank surface in front of you. In a room with only one small window, this is the usual solution.

None of these require the mirror to face anything in particular or to be positioned with a purpose in mind. They are the ordinary uses of a reflective surface.

Where guides suggest avoiding them

Three placements come up repeatedly, and in each case there is a plain reason alongside the traditional one.

• Directly facing a bed. This is the instruction people cite most. The traditional reasoning is unsettled; the everyday reasoning is easier to check for yourself, because a mirror angled at the bed catches any movement in a dark room.
• Directly facing the front door. Traditionally the concern is about a reflection of the entrance. The practical objection is weaker, but the placement is still commonly avoided — a full-length mirror square opposite an open door is simply a difficult thing to walk towards.
• Cracked or distorted mirrors. Any damaged mirror is conventionally replaced rather than kept. The reason is not mysterious: a broken reflective surface does not do the one job a mirror is there to do.

Size and proportion

The final consideration is scale. The conventional advice is that a mirror should reflect a person whole rather than cutting them off at the neck, and that a large mirror in a small room should be placed where it reflects something worth seeing — light, space, a view — rather than an anonymous wall.

That is a design judgement that most people make anyway once they see the result. A full-length mirror that only shows a slice of a person, or a huge mirror in a cramped room reflecting nothing but more cramped room, tends to be noticed immediately. The tradition's version of the same point is simply stated earlier than most people get there.

For the placement logic in the room where mirrors are discussed most, see our bedroom guide; for the entrance case, the front door.

Frequently asked questions